Localizing the cortical region mediating visual awareness of object identity

Presentations of pictures that are too brief to be recognized, or even gues sed above chance on a forced-choice test, nonetheless can facilitate the re cognition of the same pictures many trials later. This subliminal visual pr iming was compared for images translated 4.8 degrees either Within or Betwe en quadrants of the visual field. Priming was evident only for images that remained within the same quadrant in priming and test trials. Consequently, subliminal visual priming is likely mediated by cortical areas in which ce lls have receptive fields large enough to respond to both presentations of a stimulus translated almost 5 degrees, yet where the receptive fields are confined to a single quadrant, namely the human homologue of macaque V4 or TEO (the posterior part of the inferior temporal cortex). Awareness of obje ct identity might therefore be associated exclusively with activity at or b eyond the anterior part of the inferior temporal cortex, namely area TE.